Citing 'serious danger,' state orders Orlando pain clinic closed

Citing an "immediate, serious danger" to the welfare of the public, the Florida Department of Health on Friday ordered an Orlando pain-management clinic closed.

Health department officials found that A Stop Pain Management's operation as a pain clinic violates state statutes regulating such businesses.

Also, a state inspector on Friday found shortages of painkillers in the clinic's inventory.

An eight-page order obtained by the Orlando Sentinel on Monday details issues with the recent inspection, as well as a doctor once associated with the clinic, located in a small strip mall on East Colonial Drive near Old Cheney Highway.

That doctor was recently arrested by Tampa police in an unrelated case on a charge of operating a pain management clinic without a permit.

A Stop Pain Management, owned by Billie J. Aldridge, applied for registration as a pain management clinic in December 2009, and that application was approved by the Department of Health in March 2010.

At that time, Dr. Rajan K. Raj was listed as the designated physician for A Stop. He is no longer at the clinic.

In October, when new Florida laws went into effect requiring pain clinics be owned by a physician, the Health Department notified A Stop that its registration would be administratively revoked.

Two months later, A Stop told the Department of Health it applied with the Agency for Health Care Administration for a health care license — instead of a pain management clinic — and asked that the pending action against it be postponed.

If granted by AHCA, the health care clinic license would obviate the need for the clinic to be owned by a physician.

On Dec. 16, AHCA denied A Stop's application, but no one notified the Department of Health of the decision.

"Had [A Stop Pain Management] advised the Department of the denial of its AHCA application, the Department would have proceeded with the administrative revocation process," the health department's order said.

The Health Department sent inspectors to A Stop's office last week, and they compared the dispensing records with the remaining drugs in inventory.

The order said there were "shortages" of the pain killers hydrocodone and oxycodone, but doesn't specify how much.

"The controlled substances found at the clinic during the inspection have a high potential for abuse," the order said.

"One reason why pain management clinics are required to be owned by physicians and have a designated physician is so that controlled substances are safely prescribed and distributed … The failure of [A Stop Pain Management] to have a designated physician in control of the controlled substances found at the clinic during the inspection … constitutes an immediate, serious danger to the health, safety or welfare of the public."